Answers

There isn't one. Outlook always replies/forwards in the format of the original message. This is to stop you replying in HTML to someone whose email client only understands Plain Text.Simon Jones http://pcpro.co.uk

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There isn't one. Outlook always replies/forwards in the format of the original message. This is to stop you replying in HTML to someone whose email client only understands Plain Text.Simon Jones http://pcpro.co.uk

Honestly, Microsoft. All our company works with Outlook. We can't reply to each other without it changing to plain text. How many e-mail clients do not use html these days? The option not only makes sense, not having it is just ridiculous!

Agreed 100% - I've been waiting for this option in Outlook for YEARS. I have to CONSTANTLY manually change the style to HTML when replying - and it eliminates my embedded signature links. There is no rationale that if a message was sent
in text formatting, that their client cannot handle HTML formatting. Drives me nuts that I can't have the option to default reply in HTML style, and costs me a lot of TIME.

You don't have to lose your embedded signature...after changing back to html, you can either 1- right click your new, non-html signature, and re-select it to revert back to html, OR click the 'Insert' tab, then just below that, maybe one slot to the right,
you have the 'signature' tab (works great if the signature doesn't show up at all)

If you receive an email in HTML format you can be pretty sure that the address it is sent from is running an email client that can understand HTML format and you can reply in that format without causing any problems.

If, however, you receive an email in Plain Text format you can make no inferrence about whether the sending mail client can or cannot understand HTML format. You only know that they've sent a message to you in Plain Text. Now, whatever you think about
the capabilities of the email clients you receive mail from, there are
mail clients (and other automated email systems) out there which cannot deal with HTML mail and trying to send HTML mail to them will render the message completely unreadable. It is therefore a very reasonable thing to do to reply in the format in which you
received the original message.

Now, perhaps a better solution would be for your email client to remember if you've
ever received an HTML mail from a particular address and also what proportion of mail you receive from an address is Plain Text. Your mail client could then know if HTML was "likely" to be acceptable to the recipient and offer to switch
from Plain Text to HTML on reply. If the user could adjust the thresholds for "Plain Text", "Ask Me" and "HTML" then you'd be able to say "If I get 90% or more mail from this sender in Plain Text - Reply in Plain Text" and "If I get 10% or less mail from
this sender in Plain Text - Reply in HTML" and "If I get less than 90% but more than 10% of mail from this sender in Plain Text - Ask Me for the reply format".

However, that's a lot of extra processing to do on receiving every email and an additional UI burden on the users. As most users wouldn't understand the questions let alone the consequences of the choices it may well be an annoyance they would rather
do without.

My biggest problem is with automated replies from applications such as ticketing system. There's usually a question or response that I'd want to send out but having it in plain text isn't going to make the subsequent response be in standard outlook fonts.
And particularly signatures when dealing with big companies, most everyone are required to have signatures and all of them run about 6-7 lines. They do not make the emails looks good even to understand.

Having an option to default to HTML format or even when forwarding will help alleviate some of these problems.

When someone has sent you an email in plain text, it's probably because that's what they want to deal with. It's not very polite to ignore that preference, & simply override it by sending back an html email.

"Polite"? My HTML isn't rude ;) And it converts automatically -- if they can only get plain text, it will come over in plain text! I'd rather take the chance and send them my emails with the HTML formatting so that they can see and click on links to my website.

If you are in Italy and you can speak German and Italian and someone comes up to you in the street and starts a conversation with you in Italian would you not reply in Italian? Would you not think it were rude of you to reply in German - when you don't even
know if the other person can speak German?

(Rude as in disrespectful, not rude as in sexual.)

HTML mail doesn't "automatically convert" to Plain Text. If you send in HTML, most mail clients, including Outlook, send the body text twice, in a MIME envelope, so that the receiving mail client can choose which version to display.

Unfortunately some older mail clients don't understand MIME envelopes (they and HTML are NOT part of the specification for email clients - they are later extensions). In that case the mail client will display the text of the MIME envelope, the plain text
and the code/text of the HTML all at once which can be very difficult to read. Some recipients will just look at that "load of garbage" and delete it immediately without even trying to decipher it.

If you are willing to set up AutoHotkey, I wrote a little script that does it for you whenever it detects a "plain text" reply/reply all/forward window:

; Will convert an active window that says "- (Plain Text)" and convert it to HTML

; For AutoHotkey afficionados:

; For some reason in Outlook 2010 IfWinExists requires the full text of the Window, not just a substring, hence the need to get the ActiveTitle rather than just using IfWinExists. Weird glitch with Outlook Windows and AHK...
;
; A check is added for a window text element that simply is the opened message (which contains hidden text "Retention Policy")
; -- Reply, reply To All, and Forward do not appear to contain this hidden text so I use it as a filter. Might have to use AutoIt3 Window Spy if your system does not work as mine and find an appropriate filter to prevent this from changing a simple
open message window (not a reply, etc.).
;
; This is designed for Outlook 2010 and uses AutoHotkey. Store this script as a *.ahk file and run.

Agreed 100% - I've been waiting for this option in Outlook for YEARS. I have to CONSTANTLY manually change the style to HTML when replying - and it eliminates my embedded signature links. There is no rationale that if a message
was sent in text formatting, that their client cannot handle HTML formatting. Drives me nuts that I can't have the option to default reply in HTML style, and costs me a lot of TIME.

This. It is a massive PITA to fix the signature in half of my replies.

It takes two mouse clicks to change a signature. Surely not a massive
PITA.

And why are you changing format? The sender to whom you are replying has probably either

1) specifically chosen to send to you in Plain Text

or

2) they are using a mail client which doesn't understand MIME encapsulated HTML emails.

Either way, by changing to HTML format you risk annoying them or sending email that they can't understand. And to what end? So your signature can be pretty?

I would only change the format of a reply if I really needed the extra formatting capabilities of HTML mail, to ensure the meaning of my reply was clear, AND I was certain that the original's senders email client CAN display HTML, and that requires
knowledge that Outlook just doesn't have. (Perhaps it should and I've outlined above one possible way that I could see this working.)

Simon Jones
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Outlook will format links as blue underlined text even if the format is "Plain Text". If you OPEN the email, rather than previewing it in the Reading Pane, Outlook shows you the format in the Title Bar of the message window.Simon Jones
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It isn't very polite to insist that someone reply to you ONLY in your chosen format. As someone mentioned earlier, e-mail clients that cannot process HTML are very rare these days. My boss has a larger font set in Outlook 2010 because he has
trouble seeing the standard 11pt font that Plain Text uses. So when he replies to a Plain Text message, he not only has trouble reading the original message, but now has trouble replying to it as well. He has no trouble with HTML messages.

You are not prevented from changing the format from Plain Text to HTML, it is just that Outlook will reply in the format of the original message by default.

However, tell your boss to go to File | Options | Mail | Stationery and Fonts and set the font Outlook uses for Plain Text to something large enough for him to read.

Alternatively, use the Zoom buttons at the bottom right of the window to enlarge the text in the Reading Pane or the Zoom button on the Ribbon for an open message.

Another solution would be to set Windows' Display Settings to 120DPI (125% of normal) so that everything is bigger.

Simon Jones
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3) The email originated from a device which is able to display HTML emails but can not send in HTML. For example, a Blackberry phone.

Exactly!

FIRST: The thinking being is ME, not the Software. So the decision is up to me, not up to Microsoft quiche-eaters who always think to be smarter than the user. I KNOW where the incoming messages are from, if I don't I'll be as careful as I estimate
I have to be. Nothing more.

SECOND: Though quite dummy, this could make some disagreable sense for ANSWERS, but tell me a single reason for I should be unable to FORWARD the plain text message coming from someone, to someone else capable of reading the HTML (e.g. an internal company
address or a normal office address), adding my company signature. My formatted signature always messes up!

I read the whole string of emails, and while I appreciate that everyone's looking out for every one else's politeness :), the bottom line is that there are people that always want to use HTML. (And I agree with some of the posters, that Outlook often switches
to Plain text for no apparent reason.)

I work in the tech field, and correspond almost exclusively with other tech people when I'm using Outlook. I would put large amounts of cash on the fact that the extreme number of those people support viewing HTML mail today. So all I'm asking for is a way
to do that...

Simon Jones
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Simon, I am bothered by your responses. A number of people have desired a certain feature in Outlook. It is clear that Outlook does not have that feature. However, they are not wrong for wanting it. It is important for people to
understand that their feature might not be fully compatible with the entire Internet community, but it is equally important to trivialize their complaints. Just because you aren't aggrevated by the lack of a permanent HTML response feature does not mean
that other people aren't. Maybe you don't mind those extra steps, but a number of people do.

I am sorry you are "bothered" by my responses. It is not my intention to annoy people, only to provide helpful advice where I can.

I have explained here in various posts that Outlook cannot always
reply in HTML and the technical reasons why it is not a good idea. I have proposed a possible upgrade to the way Outlook handles replying and seconded a possible workaround, proposed by someone else, that users could implement.

I did disagree with one poster that changing signature format was a "massive PITA". If you think that counts as "trivialising a complaint" then so be it. I disagreed with the degree to which it was a problem, not the fact that it was a problem.

I have defended some of the technicalities of the way Outlook works but I do not for a moment think it is a perfect piece of software. I can think of hundreds of ways in which it could be improved. However, this is a technical help forum, not a wishlist
for new features or improvements so I mostly confine my replies to what is possible with the software as it exists today.

For the record, in case there is any doubt, I do not work for Microsoft and have no influence on how any of their software works. I am an independent IT consultant and I write for PC Pro, the UK's biggest computer magazine. In this, and other forums, I write
in my own personal capacity, unpaid and in my own time.

Simon Jones
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Agree!!! However, if you allow me to correct you, it's not just two clicks. It's two browsing (to find where to click),
two pointing and two clicking per each e-mail you send every day. Average time spent may be only three or four seconds, but if you send a hundred e-mails per day, it will be a waste of valuable time. If you imagine how many
people in the world goes to the same procedure, i could say that it's a HUGE waste of human-hours doing such a stupid two-clicks procedure, just because the "automatic" option is not available. In fact, I think that I am not correcting you, but reinforcing the PITA putting
that in a wider approach.

I would go to File | Options | Mail and check that your "Compose messages in this format" option is set to "HTML".

Simon Jones
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If I may add my .02...We have a bug system at my work. A end user creates a bug, we get an e-mail from the bug system of the bug. The e-mail is in plain text. The e-mail is 'from' the help system, but we change it to reply to the end user. So, we not only
change the reply-to (not a issue) but then we have to change format to HTML, then copy and paste our HTML sig - since once we reply and the reply is plain text, if we change to html, it keeps the plain text sig. So contrary to all the nay sayers, there ARE
valid reasons for wanting to force HTML.

If you click the Reply button then delete the TO address and type a different one that's not really a reply. You are effectively Forwarding the message (to another person) and changing its format to suit that other person. Perhaps you
could investigate adding a custom button that does these two actions with one click.

Your bug system started the email in Plain Text, probably because it isn't configured for or can't handle HTML mail. Perhaps you could investigate if it can be configured to use HTML format or changed for a system that can.

You don't have to copy and paste your HTML signature. After you change to HTML format, just click Insert | Signature again and any Plain Text signature should be replaced by an HTML one. (Outlook 2007 and 2010 certainly do this as they know where the signature
is. I seem to remember that 2003 and before add an HTML signature to the message so you have to delete any existing Plain Text one and/or move the HTML signature to the right place in the message.) This is assuming you have Outlook add a signature to all messages
as they are created. If you don't then there is no signature to change on the message. You just add the signature after changing format.

I fully accept that there are valid reasons for wanting to force Outlook to use HTML format
in certain circumstances but it will not be the right thing to do 100% of the time and if you do so you risk the message you send being unreadable at the other end. For this reason Outlook makes the change of format a manual task. It could, in future,
make it easier or help you decide when it is appropriate. We will have to wait and see what transpires in Office '15' which should be going to public beta in the next couple of months.

Simon Jones
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I see the reasoning behind this behavior for replying to email. It's not about
people who use email clients that do not support HTML formatting. It's about
automated systems that do not handle HTML. Such systems are common enough that I wouldn't want to default to HTML when replying.

Forwarding is another issue though. I'm skeptical of the reasoning for Outlook defaulting to plain text for
forwarded messages that arrived in plain text. That's why I found this thread--I wanted to change that behavior.

Yes, of course you can. You can set the font name, size and colour you see for reading and composing emails in plain text.

Simon Jones
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Simon, I do not mean to be rude, but you seem to have a very narrow viewpoint in this regard.

The company I work for requires all employees to:

1 - use Outlook for all work related email

2 - to have a companywide standardized signature format

3 - to send all emails, replies or otherwise with the standardized signature included

We do not have a choice in this matter. The problem arising from this is that, even when people send emails internally, for some reason when you hit reply, regardless of the type of format in which the email was received, it is converting the reply format
to plain text. As someone else posted in an earlier comment, this takes up extra time when you have to go in and insert your
required standardized signature every single time.

You should understand that some of us want to be as efficient as possible. We are not doing this merely so that our "signature can be pretty." And when we have to take the extra few seconds to fix every single email, those seconds add up.

I agree with most of the other comments, there should be an option. Microsoft is so smart and continually striving to make things better, easier, more improved. Surely they could figure out a way to allow this option for those of us who need it, while
still allowing it to convert to whatever format is required on the receiver's end.

Sorry, but Outlook doesn't just change the format of messages you've received from HTML to Plain Text when you reply. If a message is received in HTML format then Outlook will reply in HTML format. If your reply message is in Plain Text that is because
the orignal message was in Plain Text. Why the original message was in Plain Text cannot be determined by your copy of Outlook.

If your company insists you put a signature on all your emails it might consider making signatures that look good in Pain Text as well as HTML. If it uses a 3rd party signature generation system, it is usually quite easy to preview how an HTML signature
will render in Plain Text or set up separate templates for HTML and Plan Text signatures so that they are both well laid out and readable.

I have explained in other posts why automatically replying in HTML to all
Plain Text messages is not a good idea and I stand by that analysis.

If you decide you need to change the format of a particular reply from Plain Text to HTML then do so. Outlook can't make that choice for you because it isn't that smart. It is annoying that you then have to re-apply any signature to have that change format
too.

Outlook 2013 Preview doesn't change any of these deficiencies as far as I can see.

Simon Jones
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My VBA code to do this is below. It watches for new Compose windows, and when appropriate switches the format to HTML, and inserts my signature, followed by down, down, delete delete up up up up (sounds like a video game code, I know; it removes two
annoying line breaks after the sig and moves the cursor to the top)...

Option Explicit
Private WithEvents oInspectors As Inspectors
Private WithEvents oNewInspectorToWatch As Inspector
Private Sub Application_Startup()
Set oInspectors = Application.Inspectors
End Sub
Private Sub oInspectors_NewInspector(ByVal ins As Inspector)
If ins.CurrentItem.BodyFormat <> olFormatHTML And Not ins.CurrentItem.Sent Then
Set oNewInspectorToWatch = ins
End If
End Sub
Private Sub oNewInspectorToWatch_Activate()
' Note: this assumes the name of the signature to use is "personal"
' Adjust the text "personal" below accordingly
oNewInspectorToWatch.CommandBars.Item("Menu Bar").Controls.Item("F&ormat").Controls.Item("&HTML").Execute
oNewInspectorToWatch.CommandBars.Item("Menu Bar").Controls.Item("&Insert").Controls.Item("&Signature").Controls.Item("personal").Execute
Set oNewInspectorToWatch = Nothing
DoEvents
' Remove extra line breaks after sig, and restore cursor to top
' (My signature is two lines long, so others might have to change the sequence here)
SendKeys "{DOWN}{DOWN}{DEL}{DEL}{UP}{UP}{UP}{UP}"
End Sub

Nice work on this, Adam. The only trouble this gives me, in Outlook 2010, is that it uses the same signature for other accounts that normally use different signatures. I was hoping to find a way to check what account was being used before executing the
HTML + Signature code. Any idea?

Unfortunately in the new Outlook 2013 if you want to use the "Inline response" feature, then the "COMPOSE TOOLS" bar does not offer the option to switch the format to HTML, nor does there appear to be any way to modify the "COMPOSE TOOLS" ribbon through
"Customize Ribbon" to add the command (short of VB-script, but that is beyond the purvey of mere mortals).

So, if you want to continue to use the "Inline response" you're out of luck for switching format to HTML.

I think, per the original thread, that Microsoft should add "always format replies in HTML" as an option. It could also do, as Thunderbird allows, to put both versions in the message for those who insist that some need text versions (though to that I would
say, how are you surviving because everyone sends in HTML today?! Even Microsoft does so, say when you buy an online license to a product!).

Add this to the list along with "auto BCC" which literally every mailer in the universe supports, except Outlook (both of these are trivial - I do not see why these are not at least options).

My problem is that I use Outlook to send invoices as an attachment, but they always start as plain text. Sage say they cannot alter this, it is in Outlook settings, so how do I configure as HTML please?

File | Options | Mail and check that your "Compose messages in this format" option is set to "HTML".

However, it depends how Sage/you are getting the invoice attached to a message.

1. If Sage is writing a file to disk and then you a right-clicking on it and choosing
Send To | Mail Recipient then the choice of Plain Text is down to Windows, not Sage or yourself. There is nothing you can do about this except complain to Microsoft about the
Send To command in Windows and Outlook's handling of it.

2. If the Sage software is creating the message and attaching the file then it is that software which is not specifying HTML format and so getting Plain Text by default. This
could be changed by Sage's programmers if they wanted to but they'd have to handle each mail application differently. They are more likely to just use the
Send To command from Windows as that works with all mail applications but then we're back to point 1.

3. If you create the message in Outlook and then attach the invoice file to it, then Outlook will obey the choice you set in
File | Options | Mail. This is the best route to use when you need control over the format of the message.

Simon Jones
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Outlook has ALWAYS replied to a message in the same format as the original message.

Some people writing here are asking for it NOT to do so, but reply in HTML format
no matter what format the original message was in.

I have been trying to explain that there is no built in way to do that and the reasons why it isn't such a good idea.

Simon Jones
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I have been following the thread and I think everyone´s quite clear on the subject by now.

Maybe the thread should be marked "closed" or something as it could go on forever without giving any further benefit to the community.

I´d like to thank everyone for their invaluable input!

Let´s hope the Outlook development team checks this thread out and do what, in my opinion seems the most logical compromise: Add a keyboard shortcut to be applied when responding to a mail to get your default formatting of the mail body, be it HTML, plain
text or RTF.

I know it is long but please read the whole of this thread to understand the problem.

Simon Jones
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Interesting thread. I can understand the rationale that a message received in plain text may be an indication that the sender can only handle text, so replies will be text, but I don't think that's why Microsoft did it. Consider that the same
thing happens when you FORWARD that message. What's the reasoning for that?

Which problem would you rather have: having to force Outlook to use your preferred format on a regular basis, or accidentally sending html to someone who can't read it and then having to re-send later? In my world, the former happens daily and the
latter might happen once a year.

One question - what is the rationale that allows the format to be changed manually but not automatically? If it is to preserve the original format as one the sender 'understands' then changing it should not be allowed.

Outlook allows you to change the format because it accepts that you
may know better than it whether the original sender can accept HTML mail. It only looks at the format of this original message. You may remember getting HTML mail from this person before. Elsewhere in this thread I've suggested ways that Outlook
might be extended to help with this.

If it completely blocked a change in format that would be yet another thing to complain about.

Simon Jones
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I think the answer to this is that Forward is just a variation on
Reply and uses the same mechanism - so forwarding in the same format as the original message.

Simon Jones
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I don't have a problem grasping the concept but I'm not in charge of Outlook. I don't work for Microsoft. It is not me you need to be arguing with.

In the meantime there are a couple of workarounds in this thread. Try one or more of them.

Simon Jones
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I also find this incredibly annoying and wish MS would allow this option. I believe it was an option in prior releases of Outlook but I could be mistaken (haven't used OLK 2007 or earlier in several years).

If you are like me and always include your signature, here is a simple script that will delete the text version of your signature, convert the email to HTML and add your HTM signature back in:

::HH::
Send, {SHIFTDOWN}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{SHIFTUP} ;-- Select text signature by going {Down} as
many lines as your text signature has
Send, {Backspace} ;-- Delete text signature
Send, {ALTDOWN}{ALTUP}oth{ALTDOWN}{ALTUP}h{ALTDOWN}{ALTUP} ;-- Make HTML
Send, {ALTDOWN}{ALTUP}nas{Enter} ;-- Add back in the HTML based signature
send, {Enter}{Enter} ;-- add a few lines at the top of the email for content

What you people fail to realize is that there is a reason you got the plain text email. Its because the sender, or the way they sent it was sent in plain text. It should not automatically convert it when you reply.

If you don't understand why you received a plain text email ask your IT guy.

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